CLOCKWORK/NEWS
Vol. 4, Issue 19 Wednesday, March 30, 2016 Yale-NUS College, Singapore www.theoctant.org
NEWS Latin Hnours System
FEATURES Profile of Suite #14-101
FEATURES Professor Barney Bate profile (in separate issue)
YALE-NUS’ NEW LATIN HONORS SYSTEM SPARKS DEBATE AMONG STUDENTS A tongue in cheek look at life on campus Good Friday?: The Octant hopes your good Friday wasn’t turned bad by all of your assignments and that everyone at Yale-NUS College was able to enjoy their three-day weekend. The Octant took this time to work on a special surprise for April 1… more to come.
The school honors system was officially announced on Thursday 24 March Story by Elaine Li, News Editor Picture credit to Flickr User Cindy Schultz
ollowing the release of Yale-NUS College’s newly formulated Latin Honors system, over 160 students have signed a petition calling for the reconsideration of the honors system and opening up of decision-making to students. The Clockwork section in last week’s issue of The Octant broke the news of the Latin honors system. The official announcement was sent to students via email by the Registry on Thursday of the same week. It consisted of a two-page document detailing the percentile criteria for each of the three honors awards: summa cum laude to not more than the top 5%, magna cum laude to not more than the next 10%, and cum laude to not more than the next 20%. The honors will be awarded based on Cumulative Average point (CAP). It specifies designated limits within each
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major—“not more than 60% or 6 of the students (whichever is larger) in any one major will receive honors at the cum laude level or above, and no more than 40% or 4 (whichever is larger) at the magna cum laude level or above”—and clarifies that students will be ranked within their entering class in the event of late graduation. In response to the announcement, a group of students drafted a petition letter detailing eight specific policy concerns, arguing the unsuitability of the Latin honors system in the context of YaleNUS’ Common Curriculum, enrollment size and major distribution, the foreseeable comparative disadvantage Yale-NUS students will face on the job market to the National University of Singapore students, and the danger of impeded academic growth and unhealthy competition within the College. Petitioners are also concerned
Should you start praying to the bell curve god?: Speaking of religion, we wonder whether you should start praying hard to the bell curve god. This past week, Yale-NUS announced that its honors system will be determined by percentages, something that has not sat well with many students. Check out this week’s News section for more information! King(fisher) of all Mascots?: Mascot voting is drawing to a close and, as The Octant went to press, it looks like you may end up rooting for the YNC-Kingfishers.. Raziel Finkleton would be proud. Ratification is set to take place from April 5-7, now with a lower majority of 50%. Give her a Chan(ce): Ambassador Chan will be visiting Yale-NUS on March 30 for a closed door dialogue, hosted by the Student Government and G’Spot, for a conversation on Singapore’s human rights approach and treatment of migrant workers and LGBTQ+ individuals. Urbanisms: Mark (Joyce) your calendars! Yale-NUS College Arts Programs and Saga Residential College will host a two-day event this week entitled Urbanisms, a small academic conference and three, practice-based workshops examining the ways in which cities create places for arts.
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NEWS/FEATURES
that the late implementation will have negative impacts on students who planned based on the assumption that Yale-NUS would follow NUS’ model. Concerns regarding the means and scope of information released were also raised. The petition letter included a link to a form in which students could sign their names, and was circulated privately amongst students until Saturday, March. 27, when it was posted on the Yale-NUS College Students Facebook page. At the time of writing this article, the petition has totaled 166 signatures. The Octant spoke to a number of the signatories to find out their concerns. Their responses are presented below: Adlin Zainal ’17 expressed her concerns that the honors system is detrimental to the College’s mission. “I myself was severely demotivated when I heard about the system because I know I may or may not get honors,” she said. With regard to the open secret that honors having a large effect on your payroll in Singapore, she admitted that her concerns are mostly practical. As a member of the junior class, she also expressed worry at the negative implications on her future. “This very last-minute announcement throws all my plans into jeopardy and I’m just confused as to what my academic plans are going to be now,” she said. Darrel Chang ’19, saw the honors system as a “major-dependent Latin honors system that does not accurately reflect distinctions in the class as a whole”. He said that the fourth argument presented in the petition, namely “The curved GPA/Latin Honors system is
unsuitable in the context of the small enrollment size of Yale-NUS College”, was the strongest case for repealing the honors system. To take the Class of 2019 as an example, only 9-10 students would earn a summa cum laude degree, and “that number is […] too low given that a clear distinction would be made between summa and magna […]. This would plausibly imply a clear difference in the achievements and ability of students in each group—one that may not actually exist.” Other students who have signed the petition have less clear reasons for doing so. An interviewee who wished to remain anonymous said that she did not “understand the intricacies of the petition” but “mostly agree[d] with it”, and therefore put down her signature. In response to the petition letter, the Student Government has reached out to Executive Vice President of Academic Affairs Tan Tai Yong requesting his presence at a town hall. Ross Rauber ’19, Director of Academics in the Student Government said that “[Mr.] Tan seems [to have] agreed to be present at a dialogue, though we have not yet set a date and time for the event.” He said that he hopes this dialogue will clarify reasons for the policy implementation, without which it is difficult to “assess the prospects of student response effecting change on the policy”. The Student Government is also collecting feedback and concerns regarding the Latin Honors system through a Google Form, which will be conveyed to Mr. Tan before the dialogue.
PEACE LOVING BUT COMBAT READY [From Left to Right] Peter Ooi ‘18, Timothy Goh ‘18, Tee Zhou ‘18, Jonas Do ‘18 and Dominic Choa ‘18 pose with the nude paintings that decorate their suite.
Story byNicholas Lua, Features Editor Picture credit to Eun Jung Min
id-interview, Jonas Do ’18 and Peter Ooi ’18 start squabbling. Timothy Goh ’18 throws me a half-smile— he later tells me this is standard suite dynamics. The banter between the two escalates when Do complains about Ooi’s refusal to go clubbing with him. Ooi counters with the anecdote of how Do borrowed his shoes, and used them as “emotional blackmail”. The back-and-forth has an edge, but everyone is laughing. A coaster flies across the room at Do, who flings it back at Ooi. The coaster lands next to me and I bend over to read it:
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“Peace Loving but Combat Ready”. How appropriate. Suites are a fact of life at Yale-NUS College—the one thing in common we all have. Residential life, the core of the liberal arts model, has its roots in monastic communities aiming to live in harmony. But we all know suite life here (for better or for worse) often falls short of that ideal. Starting with this week, and for the next couple of weeks, The Octant will take a deeper look at suite life across campus. This week, we start with Saga #14-102. The five men currently living there are Do, Goh, Ooi, Dominic Choa ’18 and Jules Douwes, who is on exchange from
FEATURES
University College Utrecht. They all get along and also speak fondly of the two suite residents currently away from Yale-NUS College whom they still consider part of their suite: Liam Holmes, who is currently taking a gap year, and Tee Zhuo ’18, who is spending his semester at Yale University. In their time together, the men have accumulated tasteful nude sketches, eclectic movie posters and the assorted paraphernalia—a family tree, a pair of socks and a Chinese tea set—that make their suite home.
Why the socks? Ooi: (looks at Jonas’s no-show socks) Because Jonas is allergic to socks. That’s why he has half-formed socks. Deformed ones. Do: (laughing) Seriously, this guy… Ooi: No lah, because last semester I kept losing my socks in the washer. So I was a bit pek-chek [exasperated] lah, then after that Tim was going to print something downstairs, so he asked, “Eh, you need me to print anything or not? Then I was like, “Yeah, I want socks.” Then he was like, “Okay.” Then he printed these out. I didn’t know what to do with them, so I put them up [on the wall]. Goh: See, your boring story. Nobody wants to listen to you. Ooi: They were listening quite nicely what. Okay, come, come, come. Tell us your story. (Goh laughs, remains silent) Ah, still say I boring.
The family tree Ooi: The family tree has a weird story. Initially most of the people on this floor were from the same DF [Dean’s Fellow] group. And then they came up with the tree. Slowly, as more and more time went by, more and more people got absorbed into the family tree, like me and Tee Zhuo, Alex Pont and Tamara [Burgos-Rojas]. And then, ta-dah! Now the tree reflects most of the people on our floor and some others besides.
The tea set Goh: Every one semester, one person leaves, one cup breaks. Ooi: It’s the universe telling us something lah. Goh: The story actually goes back to Jonas and his monastery days.
EDITORIAL TEAM Editor-in-chief Spandana Bhattacharya Managing Editor Dave Chappell Co-News Editor Chan Li Ting Co-News Editor Elaine Li Co-Opinion Editor Justin Ong Co-Opinion Editor Annie Wang Ting Fang Co-Features Editor Yip Jie Ying Co-Features Editor Nicholas Lua Co-Arts Editor David Chia Co-Arts Editor Tan Jia Hui Copy Chief Rebecka Lindeberg DISCLAIMER: The views expressed in this publication do not necessarily reflect the views of The Octant. Questions can be directed to yncoctant@gmail.com
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FEATURES Suite #14-101
Ooi: He was training to be a monk. Do: I went to a monastery for the summer, last year. That’s where I got the pot. It’s a Tang-dynasty style pot. I brought it back and I shared it with all my good friends, and then this guy (points at Peter) broke two cups. Ooi: Ah, see. This is where history has just been altered by his biased perspective. I’ll tell you how the first cup broke. Originally, [the tea set] was positioned under the whiteboard, that was like solid lah. So one day we woke up and the whiteboard had dropped and hit a teacup down. And then the second cup broke because I was a little careless lah. I accidentally brushed it. Do: See? Huh? Still say I lie. Ooi: Yes! Evidently! I only broke one cup. Right, right? Goh: It was quite a coincidence because the first semester [of Academic Year 2015/2016], one cup broke. Ooi: The first cup signified Liam. Goh: Liam Holmes, who took a gap year. The second cup broke this semester when Tee Zhuo went overseas. So who knows what will happen when the teapot breaks. The suite will collapse?
Do: That’s what I’m predicting. (all laugh) Tim was going to print something downstairs, so he asked, “Eh, you need me to print anything or not? Then I was like, “Yeah, I want socks.” Then he was like, “Okay.” Then he printed these out. I didn’t know what to do with them, so I put them up [on the wall]. Goh: See, your boring story. Nobody wants to listen to you. Ooi: They were listening quite nicely what. Okay, come, come, come. Tell us your story. (Goh laughs, remains silent) Ah, still say I boring. The suite’s dartboard is adorned with pictures of Donald Trump and Kim Jong Un
Correction: In the article Community Service Reboots at Yale-NUS The Octant stated that KidsAccomplish focuses on teaching children from low income families. KidsAccomplish actually teaches children aged between 9-12 from various educational and socioeconomic backgrounds.
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